Dictionaries

Thesauri

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Usage Guides

Style Guides

Many style guides also have online versions, which may require a paid membership to use. Chicago, for example, charges to access the guide online. However, you can search the online index for location and go to the information in your hard copy. You can also often search a Q & A (or Ask the Editor) and submit questions yourself. Very handy.

I follow the British English. Are these books valid equally for the Americans and the Britishers?

I mean I have heard people say that the Oxford dictionary is for the Britishers and Webster is for the Americans. But I have observed in both these dictionaries that they contain both American and British spellings whenever there is a discrepancy. So I’m a bit confused.

Similarly people say that ‘The Chicago Manual of Style’ is for the Americans and Britishers should follow something like the ‘Oxford Manual of Style’ or ‘Hart’s Rules’. Are such statements true? Could you please explain?

The Chicago Manual of Style is an American stylebook, though it could be adapted for British English use (a big drawback would be the punctuation rules would vary quite a bit). So, yes, The Oxford Style Manual and The New Hart’s Rules would be better choices.

Thank you so much for replying. It helped a lot. But may I trouble you with a few more questions?

1) I live in India and the school to which I went didn’t teach us much grammar. Our teachers taught the English language by making us read a lot of quality English prose and poetry, but no grammar. Now, I’m working on a novel and I want no mistakes to crop in. So I want to read a grammar book, which teaches British grammar in simple English. Could you please make a suggestion?

So if all the rules of grammar can be broken and will still be considered as correct English, then what is the use of learning grammar rules? Shouldn’t it suffice if a person (like me) has only a working knowledge of English?

3) From the few pages available for viewing on Amazon, I liked ‘The Grammar Devotional’ very much but alas it is written by an American. Do you think that the said book, or any other good American English book can help us in any way who follow the British English?

Erin, could you recommend a grammar workbook? I’m teaching nursing students grammar. So I need some practices/tests in the book, I think. I see you like the Straus book, with reservations. Anything else come to mind? I don’t like books that over-simplify, and that seems to be most of what I find. It should be college-level. Thanks.

Hello,
My name is Serge. I was working on research of linguistic tools and found your site. This page contains a really great list of resources and I want to say thanks for it! Also, I want to suggest a one more link to a definition dictionary which I use frequently (Apart from definitions it provides rhymes, quotes and idioms). I see that you already have a few links to the related services on this page, so adding – http://www.dictionary.net probably would be a good new opportunity for your visitors to find more information.
Thanks,